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Archive for January, 2008

Behind the Scenes: The Bovine Community Before and After the Show

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

While it may seem that the fun ends when the show is over, and we must take the long regretful walk into the night, I recently learned that the party is far from over when the lights go down. Although I am new to the Bovine community, I experienced the party’s continuation at Rock Bottom, where all shared talk and laughter over a hearty pint. It is nice sometimes to sit and appreciate the good company of an enjoyable group of people.

Joining the talented Bovinians for an extension of the evening’s fun revealed to me the camraderie of this friendly and tight-knit comedic community. It is truly refreshing to see a band of people who spend time together both on and off the stage. The cast members’ interactions with each other is not just wonderful onstage, but it remains a blast of synergy outside the theater. The people of the Bovine and their close, family-like connections show us that successful comedy is not just training in the art of hilarity, but the establishment of community as well.

- Jen Janes, Intern Extraordinaire

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Word Association and the Art of Populist Improv

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

During my previous experience attending shows at the Bovine, the players on stage always seemed so cool, collected, and invincible. I marveled at what seemed to be an inherent talent for raucous funniness, and wondered where the Bovine managed to magically find people of such calm quality and unshakeable talent. Whenever we see people successfully performing in front of others, they seem somehow elevated and otherworldly as individuals.

But I found my initial responses challenged when the Bovine’s White Team allowed me to sit in on their level 4 class. They shocked me instantly, allowing me to participate in their warm-up games, as if I were one of them. I watched as they learned, fumbled, and participated in a process of gradual improvement. I realized that even though the Bovine’s performers are stars on the stage, they learn and grow just like the rest of us.

The talent of these improvisors is not diminished because they learn like everyone else. Rather, it shows that everyone, perhaps, has a talent for performance, but we all need some help bringing it out. The talent for improvisation is not something the gods ethereally bestow upon whichever mortals need something to do during their evenings; it is something we may all possess, and something we all need a little help discovering.

Ultimately, it is not the making of a Star (with a capital S) that these classes accomplish, but the act of discovery itself, granting anyone the chance to do great improv.

- Jen Janes, Intern Extraordinaire

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Unpredictability is Awesome: A Humble Intern’s Perspective on the Bovine

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

Aside from having been an on-and-off fan of “Whose Line is it, Anyway?” and having attended one meeting of a small improvisation club in high school, my exposure to improv comedy was extremely limited. Given that the pinnacle of my own improvisation skills involves tin foil and leftovers, my first experience of Thursday night BMX at the Bovine Metropolis Theater was a true eye-opener.

My life is unpredictable. I never know what I will be doing or where I will be living three months from any given date. I often don’t even know whether my milk has gone bad until I take a swig of bitter rot and hold my mouth under the faucet for thirty seconds. Unpredictability was not something I particularly liked…until I came to the Bovine.

 At the Bovine, unpredictability is actually good. “What a novelty!” I thought to myself as I walked out into the far less exciting evening that lay before me. For the first time, I enjoyed not knowing what came next without worrying about new roommates flooding the basement or mold growing on my week-old Rice-a-Roni.

The BMX show’s long-form style is not all chaos, however. The audience suggestions that guide the performances offer just enough control for comfort, like starting a “controlled burn” that will never torch the house. I, a humble Bovine intern, offer but a single caveat: this controlled burn may not torch the house, but it might make your eyes water…with laughter.

- Jen Janes, Intern Extraordinaire

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